From a speech by Ezra Taft Benson, President Eisenhower’s Secretary of Agriculture:
The Fairness Doctrine is when it all started to fall apart. It’s where we stopped talking about patriotism because it was branded a “controversial” topic. Where we stopped talking about states rights. Where we lost our national pride. Where speaking of the United States as the greatest nation on earth was ostracized and the demonization of the United States was encouraged.
Such anti-patriotic measures have resulted in jaw-dropping situations like this one in New Hampshire:
No one is sure when daily recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance fell by the wayside at Woodbury Elementary School.
But efforts to restore them have erupted into a bitter dispute in this town of about 800 residents, with school officials blocking the exercise from classrooms over concerns that it holds children who don’t participate up to scorn.
Ronald Reagan’s ending of the Fairness Doctrine saw a re-awakening of this talk and conversation. But after over 20 years of silence, we are just now beginning to rediscover our voices.
Obama’s presidency brings with it the threat of the reimposition of the Fairness Doctrine, which would silence our voices just as we began to speak.
We need to speak out. We need to re-discover that national pride and patriotism that was once a cornerstone of this great nation. The bitterness, anger, and vitriol associated with our currently divided nation is a result of the lack of national pride. That pride is the one thing that binds us together as a nation, the thing that transcends politics and political parties, the thing that binds us together as We the People who are protective of our liberties that The Government tries to regulate or take away entirely. Our national pride is the only thing that keeps our nation from descending into the muck and mire that has plagued virtually every other nation.
A nation divided against itself will not stand.
We need to rediscover our national pride. And we need to rediscover it now, before we lose it for good.
It was a revelation of sorts.
In listening to a news report about how the Big Three automakers in Detroit are asking for another bailout, we started thinking about the nature of these bailouts. What are they, exactly?
These “bailouts” are the giving of government money to struggling industries and businesses. The government doesn’t have the money right now, so they borrow it from other countries (like China and Dubai) in the form of 20-year U.S. Treasury Bills. These are paid back by… taxpayer dollars. And those who pay the most in taxes are the people who are responsible and successful, be they corporations or individuals.
So, we are taking money from companies and people who are responsible, successful, smart, and classified as “rich” by politicians, and giving it to companies who are irresponsible, unsuccessful, have made bad business decisions, and as a result are on the brink of failure.
Isn’t the proper course of nature for these beleaguered companies and industries to fail? Is it not in our best interests for them to fail?
By taxing those who are successful and responsible, we are punishing them for doing the right thing, for running their businesses and living their lives in a responsible way. So before any new tax plan even goes into effect, we are already redistributing the wealth of the successful and responsible to the companies and industries who — through their own irresponsibility — are least deserving of it.
